Varghese, N.V. (eng.)
Mar 21st, 2011 by Charlotte Haug
Varghese writes:
I came in close contact with Professor Gudmund Hernes during the turn of this century when he became Director of the International Institute for Educational Planning, Paris.
Professor Hernes showed an adorable capacity to draw generalizations from context specific issues and we always admired his efforts to reposition educational planning and IIEP in an intellectual context and tradition. He elevated the nature and level of discourse in the Institute. The re-organization he initiated was an exercise in democratization of the decision-making process in the Institute.
I had an opportunity to work with him very closely on one of his pet projects at IIEP – introducing the Master’s degree option in the Institute’s Advanced Training Programme. The initial struggles to conceptualize the new programme, to transform the concept into operational principles and a successful practice, were memorable and a rewarding learning experience for establishing a new social equilibrium. His vision and his zeal to realize the vision made all the difference in implementing a programme which was core to many subsequent changes in the Institute.
His sense of humour, personal touch in inter-personal interactions, and his sensitivity in a multi-cultural and multi-faith context made him a dear friend and advisor to many in the Institute, and he commanded a high degree of respect and regard from all.
We still derive benefit from the high levels of intellectual discourses and democratic discussions and decision-making processes he initiated. For me, interactions with him are professionally enriching and intellectually rewarding.
I wish him many more Happy Birthdays!
Varghese is a great scholar, a great organizer – and a great friend.
He tutored me on the 1997 Asian Financial crisis and its impacts on global education, he enlightened me on both social structure and politics of India, he updated me on higher education in Africa. Varghese is a global scholar, with an overview which few scholars at universities attain because he is also so widely travelled, providing him with the opportunity to pick up from missions what you cannot yet find in publications.
An then there is Varghese the organizer – with the strategic view for where we are going, for the skill in getting all the elements that are needed to implement a program in place in time – also when it implies lots of work and lots of coaxing to generate all the inputs from all those whose contribution is needed – and to make a program legitimate. So when the Master Programme at IIEP was put in place and the “Blue Book” got written, it was in large part due to the unfailing and imaginative and persevering work of Varghese.
Varese has two other capacities that must be mentioned: The courage to speak truth to power – even when it might be more self-serving to keep quiet. This is particularly prominent in cases where he sees the need to hold standards and maintain professionalism: Varghese is totally incorruptible.
Then his store of stories: the many humorous asides he commands to illustrate and enlighten an argument. He knows very well that a joke can make a dead serious point!
A special fondness for the trips he helped organize to his home country India, for the joys of his family he shared with Charlotte and me – and all the superb Indian food he introduced us to!
And Varghese could tell some sobering stories about international organizations, not all of them humorous.